Congratulations Ana Pinczuk, the winner of our 2018 Development award. We will be honoring Ana (and our other winners) at our annual Make Your Mark Awards on Thursday, Nov 15 at the Santa Clara Marriott. RSVP to celebrate with us!

Ana Pinczuki was President and General Manager for HPE Pointnext, HPE’s $7B+ services business until August 2018. She led a team of 25,000 IT experts responsible for driving customer’s digital transformation journeys including Hybrid IT and Intelligent edge consulting, professional and operational services. Previously, Ana was the Chief Product Officer at Veritas where she was responsible for driving a $2.5B products organization, including the Veritas Information Availability, Information Management, Backup and Recovery and Appliances portfolios. Prior to joining Veritas, Ana spent 15 years at Cisco where she held various roles including SVP, Global Services Sales, Services COO and SVP, Global Services Support. Ana also spent nine years in the Cisco Development Organization driving Engineering groups, including Cisco’s high-end routing platform and IOS product management and software development. Ana started her career at AT&T Bell Laboratories as a systems engineer and held numerous roles there, including Vice President responsible for deploying AT&T’s Internet backbone. Ana is a member of the International Women’s Forum, Anita Borg Institute, Cornell Computer and Information Sciences Advisory Board, and Carnegie Mellon Engineering Advisory Board. She is also the recipient of numerous awards including Fortune’s 2018 and 2017 Top 50 Latinas, 2016 Women of Influence Award, 2017 and 2016 HITEC 100, 2014 Corporate Index (Top 25 Hispanics), 2013 Latina Style Executive of the Year, and 2013 TWIN Award. Ana holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, a Master of Technology Management degree from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, and a Master of Science Degree in Software Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

Smartest Career Move

I've reinvented myself several times, whether it's going from an engineering centric role to business development or sales, shifting technologies, size of companies, geographic location, etc. One of the smartest career moves I made was when I moved from AT&T to Cisco. Looking back, it was a crazy decision. I was 7.5 months pregnant, had spent 15 years at AT&T on the East Coast, was a Vice President with a thriving career. I moved with a 2 year old and newborn to California, took a demotion to a Senior Director into a position that was very new at the company, and had to restart at a new company. Yet it was the best decision ever! I learned a new market, was a small fish in a bigger pond (very grounding experience), had to prove myself once again, and learned to make choices to balance personal and professional goals. Most of all, I learned to trust my instincts and to be agile in new situations. It has served me well throughout my career.

Favorite Mentor (and Mentee)

My favorite mentor is my husband. He is very grounded and gives me the best advice (even when I want to ignore it). I am an extroverted person that is always multitasking in many areas of my life - work, kids, parents, community, for profit or non-profit boards, etc. He's helped me think beyond a career path but truly how to think about success, with career being just one part of that.

I have so many mentees that I've enjoyed mentoring. I've had one mentee at Cisco that has progressed from individual contributor to an executive. I was not easy with my advice to him but I was very honest. He listened, took it in, and has really grown as a leader. He's taught me how to be a better listener and work with feedback to improve oneself. I had one mentee at HPE who was also a reverse mentor. I was able to give her advice about what to do in her role as a new services seller, and she helped me immensely with feedback from the ground - truly what was going on in the field.

Personal Hero

My mom is my personal hero. She got her PhD in the 60s in Biology at a time when there were few women (specially married women with a child) pursuing PhDs. She has an amazing disposition, has been a wonderful mom, wife and role model, and is still a professor at almost 80! I aim to be as great a human as she is.